Power From Wind Will Jump Back Across River
May 25 - Bismarck Tribune
A new source of wind power generated in Burleigh County will cross the Missouri River on one set of lines and go back across on a different set a short distance away.
It's in the position of having to send the power west, or backward, across
the river to a transformer station before the power can go east to its Minnesota
market.
The Public Service Commission held hearings Monday in Center and Wilton on
the company's plans to build a 28-mile transmission line from Burleigh County to
the Square Butte substation in Oliver County, near Price.
The wind power will be transformed from alternating current to direct current
at the substation and transmitted along with electricity generated at the Milton
R. Young stations at Center.
FPL Energy still has some unfinished business, so the PSC will continue the
hearing at 9 a.m. June 15 so that the company can file maps, archaeological
clearances and other information before it starts construction. There will be
support towers on either side of the river, but none in it. The line will cost
more than $5 million and is expected to be done in December.
The company was asked why it's doubling back rather than hook up to the main
transmission line on the east side of the river where it's gathering the turbine
power.
Company director John DiDonato said it would add "tens of millions"
to the project to build a transformer on that side.
"Don't we wish we were over here," DiDonato said at Center.
It is a more logical location, since it would save the company the long,
expensive route backward and the electricity wouldn't meet itself coming and
going.
But DiDonato said it takes too long to gather wind data to change tack now
and the company wants to take advantage of federal tax credits that are set to
expire at the end of the year.
Still, there might be some opportunity in Oliver County for wind power, and
more in Burleigh County. Oliver County Commissioner Kent Albers encouraged the
company to consider setting up turbines on that side.
DiDonato said the new line will have the capacity for another 200 megawatts
of electricity. He said a limiting factor is capacity out on the main
transmission line.
The FPL Energy line will run parallel to the Minnesota-Minnkota line when it
crosses the river. It can't underhang its lines on the main transmission line
structures because of strength and clearance problems.
Minnkota's Ray Burnstad said the FPL Energy line should be constructed far
enough away so there's no entanglement if a tower topples or lines are hit by a
tornado.
FPL Energy will put orange balls on the line to reduce bird strikes.
Commissioner Susan Wefald instructed the company to inquire whether U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service wants orange balls strung on the wire over wetlands for the
same purpose.
The commission also asked whether the Wilbur Boldt Wildlife Management Area
in Burleigh County could be avoided rather than nipped into by the transmission
line.
Dennis Kost, of Washburn, who has a tourism business, said he researched the
company and found, "You guys are OK."
Still, he said, landowners should get annual payments rather than one-time
easements to share in the profits and make it easier to get lines built.
FPL Energy built a similar wind turbine project near Kulm and Edgeley.
(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@westriv.com
.)